Travis Kalanick will leave Uber’s board on 31 December, the company said on 24 December 2019, bringing to a close his formal ties to the ride-hailing business he helped found.
Uber said he is stepping down to concentrate on other business endeavours. “Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years,” Kalanick said in a statement. “At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits.”
He added: “I’m proud of all that Uber has achieved, and I will continue to cheer for its future from the sidelines.”
Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi paid tribute too. “Very few entrepreneurs have built something as profound as Travis Kalanick did with Uber,” he said. “I’m enormously grateful for Travis’ vision and tenacity while building Uber, and for his expertise as a board member. Everyone at Uber wishes him all the best.”
Stock sales and a new project
Kalanick founded Uber with Garrett Camp ten years earlier. Camp will stay on the board. Kalanick was pushed out as chief executive in 2017 after a series of scandals and lawsuits.
In November he sold $711m (£548.9m) worth of shares. Lately he has turned more attention to CloudKitchens, a kitchen rental and food delivery company that he funded with $300m.
A rough end to the year for Uber
His exit lands at a bad moment for the company. Uber was banned from operating in Germany the week before, after losing its licence in London in November. London authorities found that more than 14,000 trips had been taken with drivers who had faked their identity on the app.
